Community Solidarity after Right-Wing Threat to Hastings Mosque
Muhammad Daniel provides a personal perspective
Last week, Hastings Mosque received an anonymous email saying a group of ‘Britain First’ members would be marching to the mosque on Sunday morning (3 March) to “cause trouble”.
What most disturbed us about this threat was the timing – Sunday mornings are when over 150 children are in the mosque to learn about Islam in the weekly madrasah. After discussion, we decided to err on the side of caution, and cancelled the madrasah for that day. We also informed the police, local councillors, activists and neighbours, asking them to come and support us in case any danger should materialise.
From 10am a wide variety of people, both Muslim and non-Muslim, started arriving at the mosque. Some people stood outside while everyone else relaxed in the main hall, chatting over tea and baclava.
As the morning drew on, it became clear no one from ‘Britain First’ was coming. We will never know if it was an empty threat, or if they just don’t like baclava.
So, we settled down and listened to different speakers from the hosts and visitors. Some talked about their fears upon receiving the threat, some mentioned the wider context in which the threat was made. Everyone expressed their joy at the strength of the response from the community, and the tangible warmth present between people of all faiths and none.
As a convert to Islam, I was so happy to see Muslims and non-Muslims getting to know one another. In the 25 years I’ve been Muslim, I’ve often felt split between two worlds – last Sunday I felt the barrier between those worlds disappeared and we were simply human beings – with the same needs, loves, hopes and fears.
It cannot be a coincidence that we received this threat at a time when mainly Muslim children are being killed on a daily basis in Gaza. While everyone with a heart is deeply troubled by the ongoing massacres, Muslims feel personally attacked: many of us have friends and family in Palestine, and all of us have children with the same names as Gazan kids. So, to be threatened with “trouble” on the main day of the week children attend the mosque made us feel extremely unsafe. Did the anonymous coward who wrote the email feel emboldened by the ongoing, unchecked Israeli aggression? Have Muslim children now become a legitimate target in fascists’ eyes? We hope not. We pray not.
I was brought up in a Jewish family in North London, and converted to Islam in 1998. Part of my journey to Islam involved reading the history of Palestine and Israel. Anyone who studies the facts will see Zionism for what it is: a settler colonial project that seeks to displace the indigenous people of Palestine. It’s time to call for an end to this divisive project, and the devastation and enmity it is causing between Jews, Muslims and Christians. We all lived together harmoniously in Palestine for centuries – we can do so again.
We are enormously grateful to the police and the wider community for their support on Sunday, and we will be holding more community events soon. Everyone is welcome – if you don’t like baclava, we’ll get in some ginger nuts and rich tea.
I’d like to leave you with this poem I wrote about the situation in Gaza, and the danger of staying silent about it.
WHAT A WORLD
What a world is this?
Where children are killed
And people vote to kill more
What leaders are these?
Who dispute numbers dead
As if it’s a game with a score
You debate and resolve
But refuse to condemn
Despite the difference it could make
If you’re so convinced
There should be no ceasefire
Then why does your hand start to shake?
What a time is this?
Where we watch genocide
Then scroll down for cooking tips
How dangerous it is
To be desensitised
To the horrors we soon learn to skip
Because life must go on
If only for some
But tell me, what will you do?
When the dust settles down
On the burial ground
And they turn their attention to you?
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I do not support Britain First but lets be intelligent about this. The claim? They emailed to say they will come and cause trouble at a Mosque? Nonsense. How convenient this happended soon after Sunack and his bizarre speech trying to convince the population that the far right and extremists are a threat to the country. Who is the real threat? Look around at the state of the country, the destruction of the economy, the collapsing of all services, the destruction of the NHS, people drowning in poverty while billions is funneled abroad to keep wars going. The rampant corruption and dishonesty in main stream politics, who caused all this, the far right? the far left, no, not at all? Whats been done to the UK has been done by labour and the conservatives. How terrified those mainstream parties are that in the coming elections all the people are going to remove them. There was never a threat, do not be fooled. Stay focused, elections are coming, it is time we in the UK drain the corrupt political swamp.
What is the point in claiming the email was fake? Whilst I agree the current party politicians are a major issue and are causing a widespread collapse of our infrastructure, disputing a threat’s legitimacy under the guise of ‘keeping focus’ is doing nothing more than giving a free pass to hate speech.
Out of interest, if Labour and the Tories are not options, who would you suggest voting for?
The problem is that Muslims/Islamists want global sharia law.They want to take over the globe and they are working on it from the inside out.Sharia law and Islamic ideology is not compatible with the west .I wish you people would pray quietly and in your own privacy.We are Christians here mostly and I’m a Catholic Irish person.I do not put my religion on other people or impose it on people.its my private life.I accept Muslims in my country but they must not become so entitled like they are above us .That is what we feel.pray privately and don’t put your religion on others.